The contribution of legislation to injury control is examined. It is suggested that the legislative approach Spends for its success on three factors. Firstly, the legislative requirements should be relevant to the injury causes that they purport to control. Secondly, legislative requirements should be capable of implementation i.e. they should be readily available, easy of comprehension, technically practicable, and permit ready detection of non-compliance. Finally, the legislative system should contribute to the development of expertise amongst all those persons whose daily activities are concerned with injury control.
Although the major emphasis of the paper is toward occupational injury control, an application to other forms of trauma is deduced. The importance of research is stressed.
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